EGBE coventry
 

I am trying to encourage all you general aviation pilots to pay us a visit here at coventry but this would be easier if i knew what you expect when you fly out for a land away? your thoughts would be appreciated. for any info regarding fees and facilities please feel free to pm me
many thanks in advance
DH

First thoughts.
Friendly ATC and ground staff.
NO HANDLING
Charges say £10 for singles, £20 for twins.
Nice cafe with decent food and opening hours (they all seem to close at 4pm) Interesting things to do and see not too far away.

^^ What he said ^^

Does Coventry have a published arrival or departure route for GA?

charges
 

hi mike, charges are per kg of mtow....
currently landing is 0.015p per kg we also have no handling for ga
a cafe and the dc6 diner
and most friendly atc and ground staff
50% discount on landing fee if uplifting more than 30 lt of fuel :D

and dark? this is a question i should surely know the answer too!:uhoh: lol
i will find out in due course.
DH

Is this correct or am I calculating it incorrectly?

650 (kg) x £0.15 = £97.50.

I hope that should have read 1.5p / kg ?

as per Coventry Airport : Fees and Charges

I will vouch for the friendly ATC staff. Always been very clear and helpful.

Posting an invitation on a forum is a good start:-)

Do you have periods when you are less busy? If so, then discounted landing and instrument approach fees might attract some of us.

Are you happy to take students on solo or qualifying cross country flights?

Our school/ club organises a Sunday breakfast fly out once per month. Coventry would be just within range from Redhill I think and it would be nice to go a bit further North than our usual destinations. Will you offer discounted fees for a small group of aircraft like this?

Last time I went there the Diner was shut. Anyway, one has to book and it is not cheap. Moreover, I was told to orbit 5 miles finals whilst a Meteor flew a circuit. No priority for me who was No 1!

sorry should have put 0.015 per kg
so 650 kg is £ 9.75

Was at the dinner a couple of weeks ago but not in anything GA.

It was good food and I think 50 quid for an engineer, FO and me including a double round of soft drinks. Nothing from the steak menu mind. I think the café is cheaper but as the company was paying. The diner was good food and worth it just to see what the fuglies where bitching about. Its been de odorised from its atlantic freighting days.

ATC were fine with an IFR outbound and were pretty busy with VFR traffic and seemed to handle things effectively even with one hand tied behind there backs waiting for radar release from Brum which is understandable.

There is loads to see round the airport.

In some ways its a bit of a missed location. Everyone thinks its to hard to get into because of Brum being so close when actually its a pretty interesting place to go to.

http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadba...2012-08-23.pdf

I don't think there are VFR routes in but its not that hard as long as you don't go above 1500ft. I would attack it from the east and just get myself North of the 101 radial tons of fields and stuff that side

Went is a couple of years ago when it was "shut" to visit the classic airforce...would love to try the cafe. do we have to wear Hi-viz....:ugh:

Don't know why I've missed Coventry so far. Maybe due to it's proximity to BHX as MJ says.

Will definitely plan on visiting soon, probably as a fuel/lunch/leak while heading North on the epic trip I'm planning...

Price structure is unfreindly to helicopters. EC120 MTOW 1750 kg = £26.25 despite not needing PAPI, the runway, tarmac taxi ways or creating any need to surface / repair same.

Much fairer to have fixed prices £x singles, £y twins, etc.

Guess you will just have fixed-wing visitors, sorry.

I was pleasantly surprised how relaxed it all was.

The only person who seemed to be wearing a hi viz was some bloke wandering round taking photo's of the shack and other things. the whole place seems to be a bit of a scrap yard to be honest in a nice interesting way.

I think if you try and be daft and cut across brum zone your maybe going to get a hard time of it but if you just track a bit further north and then come in North of the 101 Hon radial I can't see any gotchas.

I don't recall it being hard - I did it as a solo landaway during my PPL.

I just rather nostalgically dug out the chart with the GPS track on it. I navigated visually to Draycott Water and then followed the motorway straight to the airfield. (I was barely allowed to know what a VOR was in those days) :O

Edited to add: I was talking to ATC and following instructions!

If you do visit, try the Midland Air Museum just outside the perimeter of the airport. I had driven past that place so many times thinking it was just a few sad old aircraft in a field. Boy was I wrong!

It was a fascinating place even without the outside exhibits, (of which there are many and some very rare). A day is nowhere near long enough to visit this place. It is only a short walk from the flying club.

To be fair, if you can afford to run an EC120, you can afford £26.25!

if you bring in your ec120 and uplift 31 ltrs of fuel your landing fee will have a 50% discount making it just over £13.00


hi dobbin i can ask if it is possible to gain a discount for a group fly in, and the dc6 diner has now started doing breakfasts, all be it only saturday and sunday at present.
tupperware yes hi viz is mandatory and minimum required is that at least one member of crew to be wearing one.
DH

EGBE
 

Yep, MJ’s “in a nice interesting way” description is good.

I recall a student out of Conington lining up from the Flying Club on a cross country and having a “did I just hear that?” moment when asked to “move forward to the burnt out aircraft” to do their power checks.
There’s a training aircraft that the fire crew (use to?) use, but the radio call did make me think, “so does this kid understand what he’s been asked or does he think this is Mad Max territory and we judge airfield position by debris?!”

Coventry has it’s own ATC, beneath Brum, with DHL 737s based there, (all of which is enough to make some fair weather flyers I know hot under the collar) but to Coventry’s credit, they are as GA friendly as they come. Approach and Tower are both helpful and accommodating, and are as calm and friendly as a good, local airfield. Not sampled the food, but will have to make a point of trying.